The purpose of the “Sunflower Blog by Rob” is to explore what people think about the concept and to determine whether there is enough interest for me to do a book. The Sunflower model was introduced as chapter 3 in my first book “Entrepreneur America” published by Harper Collins, it was republished as a paperback under a new name ( same book) , called “Smartups“.

Rob’s Sunflower

Here is chapter one of the yet to be printed book , “The Sunflower model- A thought process for building high growth businesses“.

A man was crawling around on his knees , he was looking for his lost wedding ring. Others joined in the search. Fortunately for all, there was good light from a nearby lamppost. An hour went by, no ring was found. A frustrated searcher had the insight to ask, “where do you think you lost it?” “Over there”, the distraught man pointed. But that is hundreds of yards away, mumbled the searcher. “Well yes”, exclaimed the man, “but the light is better under the lamppost.”

The “ light is better under the lamppost” phrase sums up much of business planning. I live in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley of Montana. Running thru the valley is a beautiful river and a not so beautiful highway, route 93. If you drive route 93 enough, you will begin to spot patterns on businesses. For example, there are dozens and dozens of storage rental businesses ,backhoe excavating places and log building businesses. Now, exactly how many storage places and excavator places does a valley of 30,000 people need? How many can the valley support? I think the businessmen running those companies are practicing “looking under the lamppost”. Because others have done it, because there is data on someone, sometime, and someplace making money on a storage center or a backhoe business, that justifies yet another one. Each new one thinking it is different in some way “ I have bigger storage bins, better lighting, better security” or “my backhoe equipment is newer”, “my operators more efficient” and so on. It is all wishful thinking and a simple case of looking under the lamp post.

Whether you are a small business or a high technology business, you can be trained on where and how to look, so as to improve your odds of building a successful business. The model is about the art of looking. There are three parts to the Sunflower 1. the stem, looking back 2. the petals, looking forward and 3. the center, looking in.

Think of the Sunflower as a way to represent your business and a process for planning. Lets look at a company like Honda. They are involved in cars, motorcycles, lawnmowers, generators and so on. So what business are they in? If Honda used what I call “Analyst Speak” and relied on analysts’ reports, they would have landed in whatever was their first business, lets say cars. They would be duking it out in the car business. Instead they are in multiple businesses leveraging their core competency, “building engines”.

As noted in the introduction, Managers faced with sagging revenues, collapsing markets, declining margins, disruptive technologies and unexpected competition can succeed if they follow the Sunflower principles. Again, these are:

1 ) The ultimate “billion dollar” application for a new technology, a new service is unknowable in advance. History has 20/20 vision in identifying the “billion dollar” application for a proposed technology/product/service. Analyst reports are best read as history reports. Do your own primary research for prognostication. Note: “billion dollar” is a placeholder for whatever number indicates success in your business, perhaps as with most, it is a million dollars.

2 ) You find and develop new markets, markets for which your core competency is highly valued.

3 ) You avoid mainstream markets where your core competency would fare less well under competition.

4 ) You focus on understanding “what you do well”, your core competency. You use this core technology as the foundation to attack a new market and new application.

5 ) You focus on understanding the industry, local and national driving forces behind your core competency.

6 ) You set company goals to build a new petal, product/market/application, each year.

a) You build new core technology, a new core competency and marry it to your old core competency.

b) You find a new market that uses and values the old core competency.

c) You find a new application that values the old technology; the ultimate size of the application and market are unknowable.

d) You leverage the old core technology.

7 ) You size the project correctly. You structure the project inexpensively and execute the project with a small team. The small team has the authority and the responsibility to succeed.

8 ) You are constantly creating new petals and sometimes removing old petals.

9 ) You insist customers validate the new petal with conditional POs’. No Purchase Order means no new product gets built.

10 ) Ask the “right questions” of the “right customer”. “Right questions” are questions about:

- How do I leverage my core competency?

- What application could benefit most from my core competency?

- Does my core competency have a great barrier to entry from possible competitors?

11 ) “ Right customers” are those customers who have an application that best uses your core competency. I prefer my “right customers” to:

- Have money

- Be recognizable

- Be able to make a decision

- Have a value need for the product/service